At last the Yellowstone Update

Yellowstone has got to be one of my favorite places ever! Seriously, I can't believe I have made it through my entire life without having been there before. It all started on Friday afternoon as my family picked me up at the office. I was a little apprehensive about leaving my car at the FC for a week, but I notified security it would be there and they told me they would keep an eye on it. I threw my computer bag in the SUV and climbed on in. (Okay, I am not going to go into minute details about the trip, so I will try to keep it a bit more vague.) We did stop in Malad for some stretching and refreshment, while there I ran into the father of my friend (and former co-worker) Melanie Gardner. That was a bit strange but it again supports my theory of me not being able to go anywhere without running into someone I know.


We made it to West Yellowstone and quickly found our lodging. (The Yellowstone Lodge--a decent place for a very reasonable price.) After getting checked in we asked for a good location to eat dinner. For our first night we went to dinner at the Three Bears Inn, which was very good and a bit expensive. Since I was in Yellowstone, I thought I should try the local fare and I had my first taste of Buffalo, which was surprising delicious.


The first morning we woke up early and headed into the park. Our first destination of course was the Most Famous Geyser in the World, "Old Faithful". I have heard many reports about Old Faithful being a big disappointment. Well, I am here to tell you; they are dead wrong. When we arrived we had just missed it blowing, so we checked out the Old Faithful Inn, I was impressed with the preservation of the building. (I know most of the wood is new, but they do a good job keeping it rustic in appearance.) Shortly before the "Scheduled" time we made our way to the seats and eagerly waited the show. Within a couple minutes of the time, we started watching a few spurts and then finally she started blowing her top. I recorded everything on my little video camera. I don't mind telling you, I got a little choked up watching her go. Somewhat the same as what I felt when I walked on the "Great Wall of China". It was just one of those things you have heard about your whole life and needed to see. It was great to actually be there. The post above is my video of Old Faithful Blowing her top.

The rest of the day was just a tour in the Old Faithful area. Many of the other geysers were just as exciting as OF, but I didn't get nostalgic watching them. There were also so many great pools that were simply amazing. Despite me carrying the sun screen around all day, I still managed to get a sun-burn. Apparently carrying it around is not enough, you need to actually apply it to your exposed skin. (Who knew?)

Day two found us waking up even earlier as it was out day to head up towards the Roosevelt Tower Area to find some animals. We drove around a corner and right in the road in front of us was a Buffalo. Up to this point, we had not seen any wildlife that close, so it was a bit surprising and a bit unnerving. We still managed to take a few pictures and then headed on our way. About 10 minutes later we saw a bunch of people pulling into one of the overlook areas and they were aiming their binoculars and cameras across the road and up the hill. We looked up the hill and could see a dot running around, we pulled up our binoculars and quickly realized it was a Grizzly Bear. My first Grizz in the Wild--he looked nothing, nothing like Yogi or Boo Boo. We still didn't feed the bears.

We stopped in the Lamar area and looked for the Wolf Den that was supposed to be in the area. Unfortunately, we didn't ever see the Wolves, despite some guys sitting there telling us they had just seen them. (I am convinced it was really just Coyotes and they didn't know the difference.) We made a few more stops at the beautiful locations in the park and then made our way back to the lodge. On our way back we saw a couple more buffaloes in the road, the biggest was huge. It walked in front of a Mini Cooper and it completely dwarfed the car. I never knew the could get that big, I seriously think it was 6 feet at the shoulders.

Our third day we headed over to the West Thumb area of the Park. We saw more animals, took a tour on the boardwalk around Lake Yellowstone, took more pictures. (Did I mention that I took about 300 pictures for those few days?) As we were walking back to our car, about 10 feet from the boardwalk stood another HUGE buffalo. He was enjoying watching the people walk by. To be honest it made me a bit uneasy walking past him.

At this point, we had seen all the sights and almost all the animals the park has; with the exception of the wolves and moose. I was a little disappointed to miss seeing any moose. As was my sister-in-law Ali. Because of this we decided that on our drive home we would drive back through the park and down through Jackson Hole. Again, with the early morning departure driving through the park. We saw more elk and shortly after seeing the elk, Chris (I think) noticed a black bear across the river. After making the U-Turn we pulled into the lookout and quickly lost sight of the bear. We searched for about 10 more minutes, but was only able to catch a glimpse of his back as he passed through the trees.

We made a few more stops along the way, but still could not find the coveted moose. We stopped at Jenny Lake and had a conversation with one of the employees and asked her the best location to find moose. She told us to head to the Jackson Hole Lodge and sit on their deck for about 2 hours. It would probably take the full 2 hours to find one. Upon arrival at the lodge we were completely amazed at the view as you walk up the stairs. Right there in front of us, perfectly framed in the windows were the Grand Tetons. Seriously,words cannot describe the absolute beauty of the view. (Was that me almost being speechless?) We made our way out to the porch where we immediately began looking. We saw hundreds of elk, but no moose yet. After a small hike up the hill and another hour and a half, we noticed a coyote running through the meadow below. We lost sight of the coyote and moments later saw a cow moose up and running away. We found it, finally we found a moose. We milled around a bit longer before returning to the car to finish the trek home. About a mile down the road we saw another small bull moose standing 100 yards or so off the side of the road. Mike took a few really good pictures and we quickly made our escape.

We also saw another bear right off the road and we took a few pictures and videos of him. It was really fun to watch him (or her) use his paws like hands, look both ways before crossing the road, and stand up next to the tree to strike a pose for the camera. (We were a bit slow on the up-take of that picture.)

The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful but enjoyable. We had such a great time. I loved the vacation and am looking forward to my next trip to Yellowstone.